Te Pā Maru residents will have in-house access to counselling, and if they want, will be linked up to clinical addiction and mental health services (file image). Photo: Unsplash / Hennie Stander
The country's first 'wet house' will open its doors in Wellington later this year for homeless people dealing with severe alcohol addiction.
Taking over what used to be the men's night shelter on Taranaki Street, residents at Te Pā Maru will be allowed to drink on site and access wraparound services.
The project has been decades in the making, stunted by politics and financial woes, but now the Wellington City Mission promised it was here to stay.
City Missioner Murray Edridge said the new centre faced up to some pretty important questions.
"What do you do if somebody does not, cannot, or will not stop drinking? Do you abandon them? Which essentially is what as a community we have done."
Te Pā Maru will house 18 men, and have staffing around the clock.
Residents will be allowed to drink on site, but it will not be provided by the centre. However, staff may supply alcohol as an alternative to those who are addicted to things like hand sanitiser or methylated spirits.
They will have in-house access to counselling, and if they want, will be linked up to clinical addiction and mental health services.
But these men, which Edridge said had complex addictions and backgrounds, will not be required to use these services or reduce their drinking.
Edridge said they were not trying to fix people.
"If sobriety is the outcome, then that's awesome, but that won't be the reality for most of our residents of this building. So it's harm-reduction focused, which is saying, how do we reduce harm from these individuals to themselves, to their whanau, and the harm they create in the community?"
All other forms of shelters or transitional housing in the community had alcohol bans, so many wer rough sleeping because of their addictions.
Edridge expected the demand would quickly outstrip the centre's capacity.
Some residents would stay for a while, some longer, some for a more final time.
"The reality is, for some of the people who will be responded to by this service, some will transition to another place, others may spend their final days there because that's the nature of the addiction," Edridge said.
"But at least if that's the case, then they end their days with dignity."
The building was gifted to the mission in 2020, and had been undergoing a massive refurbishment courtesy of the city council and the mission's donors.
It's set to open in September and will have an operating cost of $1.43 million.
The site of a new wet house in Wellington. Photo: Google Maps
The City Mission has been working with staff from Canadian wet house programmes as well as police, Te Whatu Ora, primary and secondary health services, public health researchers, addiction specialists and mana whenua.
'Too hard' for most
Edridge admitted it was nerve-wracking being the first to do it.
"There's a reason other people haven't done it, because it's too hard. We've said we need to be very realistic in this space. At times it will be difficult, it will be challenging, there will be very challenging behaviours." he said.
Harm reduction the goal
Professor Doug Sellman from Alcohol Action New Zealand has spent 20 years lobbying to get wet houses set up in this country, and was pleased one was finally getting off the ground.
Research was clear, he said, that these models do reduce harm.
"If you take the pressure off people around abstinence, [for] these chronically severe and highly disabled people, and just provide some good human care, many of them do reduce their alcohol use." Sellman said,
"People with alcoholism develop this behavioural disorder as a result of regular heavy drinking, bringing about certain brain changes that drive a compulsion to use - and when I say a compulsion to use, I'm meaning a real life or death drive to drink - any many people in need of wet house services are at this severe level that's almost like a neurological disorder."
Tangled in more than a decade of political debate, the capital has had several failed attempts of establishing a wet house.
Former Mayor Justin Lester campaigned on a promise to establish a facility, but once he got into office it failed to get it off the ground.
Earlier than that, in 2009, Wellington City Council and the then Capital and Coast District Health Board funded $500,000 to Te Whare Okioki trust for a wet house in Island Bay, but it was pulled after the DHB demanded a five-year business model rather the previously agreed on 12 months.
Current Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau said ir was a proud new day.
"It's country-leading, and I hope it's something we see more of as people start to just gain an understanding around those who suffer from addiction issues, they need our compassion, not judgement."
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